Tuesday, July 24, 2007

This is fantastic news, related by Creative Commons founder Lawrence Lessig:who by the way, has written quite a few Great books...discussing Intellectual Property and laws of cyber space...yadda yadda...gotta love philosophy of tech.ANYWAY....for the quote:

"Due to the historical nature of presidential debates and the significance of these forums to the American public, CNN believes strongly that the debates should be accessible to the public. The candidates need to be held accountable for what they say throughout the election process. The presidential debates are an integral part of our system of government, in which the American people have the opportunity to make informed choices about who will serve them. Therefore, CNN debate coverage will be made available without restrictions at the conclusion of each live debate. We believe this is good for the country and good for the electoral process."

Yer probably a bit surprised to even learn that, yes, the television networks hosting the debates have always held the copyright to the appearance of the candidates. If you wanted to use the debate audio and video, you would have to assert “fair use” and the associated provisions (comment, criticism, parody, and proportionality in relation to the whole work). blah blah. C-SPAN was the only one who had said they would "free up" the coverage. But the announcement by CNN is the first one by a major media company.

I think its uuuuh what's the word?....Revolutionary??....It may (or may not? I could Definitely be wrong)Change the way debates are held.I think the biggest impact will be in the audience that will be reached. ...I wouldn't have sat in front of the TV to watch a debate taking place.......Definitely notTHIS far away from an election...but you put it on YouTube and...and when that time comes around where I needAnything to distract me from homework orcleaning my room ordoing something more productive...you better bet I'll go watch some video.

Pretty well related to that...is that WE get to ask the questions.No more boring unknown standing in a suitasking questions that everyone knowswill be asked, and that some punk dope-headwrote the answers to for the candidate to read from(someday .....someday one of thoses writer-punksshould add "i shaved my legs and wrecked-em"in a response......)The best example I think would be this selected debate:

Its clever. Its witty.And it asks an extremely important question.Unfortunately though, the downside is that some questions people ask...eah, are dumb. Oh well.

My favorite debate question that was asked though was the "What's to like and dislike about the candidate to your left?"

I'm sorry, but for those of you who Couldn't answer that question.... or considered it to be "ridiculous"..It means that you're not willing to be honest with me.If you Sincerely have Nothing negative to sayabout the person next to you...to me that says that whenyou have something remotely negative[and possibly important] that I as a citizen need to know....you're not going to be honest and let me know about it?I loved and hated that question because....maybe it revealedTOO much.Most people who answered said Overly superficial comments..."I like your family"You like my FAMILY? what about me?There were few who said that they admire that PERSON to the left...and FEWER who had something legitimately Negative about a person.Maybe the negative lists are too long, i don't know.But c'mon, at least humor us...at least tell us something like..."hillary, I don't like how ...how you can't control your gas" or..."Edwards...I hate it when you forget to wear deoderant"And to the lame-ass who thought the exercisewas RIDICULOUS.....I say......."ooooh, you're THAT kid" You know what I'm talking about.The kid at all the team building retreats/conferencesyou were at who was too Good to participate fully.You're THAT above us? Holy Balls.